


Of Sunset Storms and Knife Fights – A Ghost Story

by svint_of_the_deep



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Destiny 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-08 07:37:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16425167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svint_of_the_deep/pseuds/svint_of_the_deep
Summary: An Awoken comes back into contact with what remains of the civilization she abandoned after being sentenced to exile. No longer a guardian without a ghost, secrets about her life, contact with the light, and the strange manifestation of her powers force her to grapple with what the title truly means.





	1. Star Bright, Little Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a short introduction about my girl and her ghost. More to come soon since i had the idea at 3 am!

For the first week, she didn't talk. Not to ask even the simplest of questions. You know, the ones they all ask. She didn't need to be resurrected, thankfully, but I could tell that something wasn't quite right. Whatever she suffered from, she would tell me in due time, because it was not as easy to heal as a broken limb. No weapon lay in the hollowed out, half-rotten servitor where I found her. Judging by the braided ivy curtain hanging in front of the shell and the small storage shelf inside, this was what she called home.

Silently, I wondered about the things no ghost should have: regrets.  _Did I choose wrong? Is my guardian still out there?_

Three days after I became her ghost, she tried making what she thought was a coat for me out of tattered cloak pieces and bird feathers of all kinds. Downy and soft on the inside, she must have thought it would be warm. It took the better part of an hour and the Traveler's patience to convincer her that I could not get cold. The little ghost-coat soon turned into a scarf for her and a new hiding place for me. And yes, it did feel nice and warm.

I'll never forget the first time I heard her voice. It sounded like muffled rain, like you're looking at a storm through a foggy window. Imagination is not something that comes easy to me, but I remember that it was on a cloudless night. The stars shone bright through a castle roof. Or was it a cathedral? Everywhere we stay is in ruins so I can never tell. We found an old armory, how old I can never tell, and she was testing the weight of a sword she found. Odd that it didn't need heavy ammo to work. I was trying to tell her that we needed a real home to stay in, and real weapons to fight. Just because we found no enemies didn't mean they were out there.

"The weapons I had are gone, stolen and scrap, or long sold by now."

'We can get new ones that haven't been sitting in a basement since before the Collapse. Light alone can't help us.'

She laughed, droplets of rain tapping on the glass somewhere in the world where people describe voices better. "Someday, little ghost, I'll tell you of my time before the light."

That night, I learned her name was Megara. Through walking, running, battles and peacetime, I learned more. About how she left the Awoken people and made her home first on the oceanless shores at the foot of paradise and then in the ruined forests of Earth. About how the Traveler made her a guardian with no ghost, a lightless Light. About how she found an ally in one of our greatest enemies, and about fear, silent and gnawing, but knowledge that you live another day.

That cloudless night, I told her my story, and about the ball of light we have yet to understand. I also told her my name: Vici.


	2. Hold on to Your Scarf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting this as a way to cheat an atypical NaNoWriMo. This may or may not turn into the slowest pre-Red War fic ever but...c'est la vie. My brain is fried from Escalation Protocol and this is what's left.

Megara took off her scarf and tucked it into a little hole in the stone wall, just big enough to hold me. She muttered something about finding armor under her breath and walked off into a back room in the armory, our temporary home. Through the sounds of moving boxes and changing clothes, I looked around the space above the scarf. There wasn't much here besides the sword she found neatly tucked into a corner, an armchair with barely any cushion left on it, and this hole in the wall. I tried not to wonder what the intended setup was while she was gone.

Soon enough, she was back wearing what might have been real armor at one time. The chestpiece and pants were a faded green and brown pattern, designed to blend in with the forests that seemed to go on past the horizon. Her cloak had a large hood, enough for her scarf and I to fit inside. Any hiding place is better than being out in the open for a ghost. Especially one with a lilac shell.I couldn't place the nearly worn out insignia on the back, it could have been decipherable if the cloak didn't crop at the waist. The gauntlets were fingerless, not worn by someone who liked throwing punches...or liked throwing too many of them.

Megara was fiddling with a broken utility light as she sat down in the chair, a puzzled expression making an uncomfortable home on her face. Or maybe she was thinking. It's difficult to tell in a dimly lit room and I'm terrible with people. Finally, I broke the silence.

"You can't expect that to work without a proper repair kit. At least not one–" A small arc burst came from her palm and dropped into the cage surrounding the broken lightbulb. In a second, the room glowed a faint blue.

"You were saying?" She placed the light in the middle of the room and walked over to the hole in the wall where she placed me earlier. She unraveled me from her scarf and let me hover while she sank back into the chair.

"Nothing. I was saying nothing. But now I'm saying that I'm surprised nothing exploded." Her sky blue eyes studied my expression. I'm suddenly wishing that I changed colors or did  _something_ other than stare ahead and twitch my shell, but Megara laughed.

"I thought the same thing when I found out about that trick. It's come in handy on more than one occasion. The fancy stuff is when it's time to play hero."

"I'm sorry, the  _fancy stuff_?"

"Last time I checked, ghosts can't wield arc energy like a fancy spear or call down some lightning and obliterate a wave of enemies, can they?" Megara mimed lightning crashing down with her hands, then smiled.

"Last time I checked, only stormcallers can obliterate enemies with entire storms, and you're a hunter." _Traveler preserve me, this is not what I expected._

"Vici, I've never cared for labels. Robes are too formal for battle and marks are...well I'm no titan. Cloaks are practical. Like how I used to be." She sighed, running a hand through her hair. It was a darker blue than her eyes and cut by a knife that had seen better days.

"That sounds like a beginning to me. And a very long story."

"We have a few hours before sunrise. Make yourself comfortable, Vici. There's a lot to take in."


	3. Swords Don't Need Reloading

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The best stories are the ones that get interrupted by a welcoming party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so bad at writing on time but once I finish getting corrupted eggs I SWEAR I'll start uploading again.

Megara settled into the armchair and gave me as much of a smile as she could muster, which wasn’t much. “We didn’t have time for beauty back home. No time to revel in the light as everyone does here. I can hardly call it home anymore.

“Before the Taken, before the dreadnaught, and before I learned about the light, I was a corsair. Nothing high ranking, lowest of the low if you need something to base it off of. Hidden eyes in a fortress with no enemies. I remember the mists where we were based, closest to the watchtower that guards the entrance to the city. Holed up in a damp cave is no excuse for a temporary base, much less something permanent.”

“That’s not what I’ve heard about the Dreaming City, wasn’t it some kind of paradise?”

She laughed, letting her gaze fall to the sword and then to me. “Paradise is only beautiful when you’ve had a taste of the real world to compare it to. Those I served with never wondered what was beyond the cosmic gates.”

“I planned to do the impossible, little by little. No one was ever allowed to leave, lest they face death or exile, usually both at once. The city’s secrets weren’t for everyone. So I–” Megara was cut off by the sounds of a ship landing outside, “The Fallen!”

She put up her hood with her left hand and grabbed the sword with her right in one fluid motion. I floated to her and cloaked myself in her scarf as she ran upstairs, hiding behind a small outcrop in one of the stone walls.

“Two big servitors, four captains, ten vandals, and a lot of dregs. There might be reinforcements on the ship but I can’t get close enough for a detailed scan. Thise might be easier if you had a gun.”

“Vici, I have a sword that doesn’t need ammo, and they’ll have to reload eventually. I’ve been in worse firefights than this. Just…stay invisible, okay?”

I could barely answer when she rushed into the startled mob, slicing down two of the vandals in her way. Megara slid out and away from the sea of dregs running after her, recovering and slashing at the ones that got too close. She picked up a dead dreg’s pistol, shooting the four behind her in their heads.

The leftover vandals scattered as one captain ran towards her at full charge. Megara threw the gun behind her as her left hand glowed blue with arc energy. She sucker punched the captain, breaking his shield. Her sword thrust through his chest, slicing through what little armor was in its path. She kicked his body off the blade and sheathed it in what would have been a rifle holster on her back.

The final captain and vandals rushed towards her. From nowhere, Megara summoned an arc storm, lightning pulsing from her fingertips and towards the Fallen rushing her. They died before they hit the ground, electrocuted instantly. The two servitors spun until they exploded into pieces.

“Still in the land of the living, Vici? Hope you liked the show,” Megara didn’t sound out of breath as she spoke which surprised me. I found her examining one of the dead captain’s shotguns after I decloaked.

_I don’t know if I should be shocked. Is…is this normal?_ “Was that the fancy stuff you mentioned?”

She placed the shotgun on a sizable servitor piece along with some packs of sealed ammo the Fallen brought with them. “That was a warm up. Thought I wouldn’t be back to normal, or whatever normal I was before you found me.”

“You did look a little…uh…”

“Banged up?”

“I didn’t want to mention it.”

“Ha, it’s fine. Not like I have a mirror around to make sure I’m decent. Figured I’d do a quick flyover and see if anything needed shaping up around here. Barely into atmo when something shot down my ship, something from a long way off. Nothing popped up on sensors and I barely saved myself when we hit the ground. So I got this armor, whatever this sword is, and everything on that servitor piece to my name. Unless my vault box still has all the goodies in it.”

Megara picked up the servitor piece, adding what looked like a small scorch cannon to the pile. She looked at me with that same halfhearted smile.

“Wanna see what kinda ship the Fallen left us?”

“No enemies on sensors, transmat is clear.”


End file.
